Jaimie Warren

Watching the heinous dumpster fire that is the American news these days, sometimes it’s nice to reminisce about a more innocently crispy orange-faced villain from the news cycle’s simpler times. Remember Patricia Krentil, a.k.a Tan Mom? Her fifteen minutes of fame may have been shorter than her toddler’s sessions in the tanning bed, but boy did she leave behind a legacy.

For starters, her attempt to cling to fame with this insanely ill-conceived music video:

We’re looking at another slow events week, which frankly is a needed change of pace from the insanity the art world puts us through nine months out of the year. I say this because “slow” means there are just enough awesome events for a person to actually see all of them. We’ve got Jaimie Warren’s opening at the Hole this Wednesday. If you’re not familiar with her work, think female George Kushar for the digital age. You don’t want to miss this. The Bronx AIM Biennial,opens this Thursday, and promises to bring together the most promising emerging talent in the city. (They usually disappoint, but we’re listing them regardless because HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL.) And last but not least there’s Polly Shindler “Retreat” at Ortega Y Gasset Projects, a show of quirky interior paintings we can’t wait to see in person. Hope to see you there!

Unless you’ve been un-living under a tombstone, you know Art F City’s Goth Benefit took over the dungeon of Collapsable Hole Tuesday night. It’s an evening few of us will forget. Just in case we do, however, photographer Liz Ligon was there to document it thoroughly. From Hot Topic merch raffles to the goth opera stylings of Joseph Keckler, it was wild night. See for yourself below.

Unless you’ve been un-living under a tombstone, you know Art F City’s Goth Benefit took over the dungeon of Collapsable Hole Tuesday night. It’s an evening few of us will forget. Just in case we do, however, photographer Liz Ligon was there to document it thoroughly. From Hot Topic merch raffles to the goth opera stylings of Joseph Keckler, it was wild night. See for yourself below.

The time has finally come. Our Goth Benefit is here. We’ll be converting Collapsable Hole into a goth wonderland, complete with drag performers, surprise guests, and options such as handcuffs for couples. (We’re also having a goth couple outfit contest, so plan accordingly). If last year’s benefit was any indication, this is basically going to be the party of the year.

Wednesday, nurse your hangover with a likely-nipple-tastic Betty Tompkins solo show at Marlborough Contemporary. Other highlights this week include Siebren Versteeg’s digital paintings at bitforms on Thursday, the annual Seven on Seven conference at the New Museum on Saturday, and Sunday’s open studios at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Mexican art museums post a lot of weird GIFs on their social media accounts.

I’ve noticed this because I’ve purged my Facebook newsfeed (in an attempt to de-stress from American political bickering) of everything except Spanish-language art pages. I highly recommend this strategy, if for no reason other than the constant stream of GIFs.

This one, for example, is from the Facebook of Museo Nacional de Arte INBA. What is going on here? We see the famed painter Doménikos Theotokópoulos (better known as “El Greco”) as an old-timey baseball player with contemporary sneakers and dragonfly wings. He’s barging in on “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” by Manet, and that painting’s famed nude seems bemusedly intrigued. He has three hands, presumably for his sword, baseball bat, and catcher’s mitt (just what position is he playing here?). I envy the art history students of the future who will get to study masterpieces like this.

Shepard Fairey, Jessica Sabogal and Ernesto Yerena have created a series of protest posters that are free to download in anticipation of the #J20 strike and demonstrations. Unfortunately, there are new (draconian) restrictions on bringing signs into certain parts of the capital on inauguration day. To get around this, they’re raising funds to take out full-page ads in Washington newspapers and to distribute hard copies in the District. So far they’ve raised over $1 million. [Kickstarter]

Apparently the late, great Zaha Hadid left behind a £70.8 million fortune. Unfortunately, übercapitalist dickhead Patrik Schumacher is the executor to her will (a decision I doubt she would stand behind given his recent inflammatory comments about affordable housing). The other check-writers include her niece Rana Hadid, artist Brian Clarke, and former Serpentine Gallery chairman Peter Palumbo. The have 150 years to figure out how that money gets dispersed, via the Zaha Hadid Foundation. I hope those three vote to dole it out for innovative affordable housing. [Dezeen]

As opposed to participating in the #J20 strike, many museums are offering free admission on inauguration day, with programming such as a marathon reading of Langston Hughes’s 1935 poem “Let America Be America Again” at the Brooklyn Museum. The National Museum of Women in the Arts is closing on Friday, though, but will reopen for the Women’s March on Washington the next day, offering a “nasty women” tour of its galleries. Diversity of tactics is good for resistance. Disappointingly, the Guggenheim and MoMA, among others, have offered asinine, relatively apolitical statements about their decisions to remain open. [ARTnews]

London’s gallery-sharing event Condo 2017 sounds so smart and so successful. This is the kind of cooperation that will keep brick-and-mortar arts spaces alive. [artnet News]

Are memes the key to making the art world less elitist? Probably not, but Katie Fustich thinks they might be. How is Jaimie Warren not mentioned in this article? [Salon]

Wow. The Asheville Art Museum is beginning an $18 million, 18-month demolition/reconstruction project that will see the facade of its historic home seemingly half-swallowed/penetrated by a transparent glass box. It’s hard to tell from the renderings if this can be pulled-off effectively. [abc 13 WLOS]

Two Brooklyn artists are selling their historic 11 bedroom, 5,000 square-foot-home (with wraparound deck and killer waterfront views) for the relatively low price of $1.25M. Here’s the catch: it’s an old ferry with an insane history. 11 very smart artists should form a coop and buy this immediately. It’s one way to survive gentrification and/or sea level rise in Red Hook. [Curbed]

Potsdam, just outside Berlin, is getting a private museum from billionaire Hasso Plattner. The star attraction at the new Museum Barberini is will be Edvard Munch’s “Girls on the Bridge,” which recently sold for $54.5m at Sotheby’s. It’s believed Plattner was the buyer. If you’re a Munch fan, you can see it starting January 23rd. [The Art Newspaper]

We were pretty sure 2016 was a stinker until we sat down to reflect on all that was good. Going through the images on our phones and our archives, we learned there’s actually quite a bit to celebrate. So much so, in fact, it took us an entire week to assemble this post. That’s quite a bit of time, but it was worth every minute. Here’s to all the artists, curators and performers that made our days and lives better this year.

These images are pulled from my personal database of thousands of saved jpgs, gifs and video clips from Internet memes, pop culture, and art history, collected over a ten-year period. Deceased saints and celebrities, horror movie victims and victims of plague, pop culture monsters and cartoon characters form a cast of silly and somber subjects who cameo in my large-scale community reenactments of art history.

That’s right: the annual AFC fundraiser party SPRNG BRK is happening tomorrow, 6:00 p.m. at Otto’s Shrunken Head in the East Village. If you don’t have your tickets yet, act now, because they’re selling fast.

We’re going to party like it’s the MTV Beach House in 1999, with vegan jello shots, a “Best Man Boobs in the Art World” wet t-shirt contest (email us to enter for a free ticket!) hosted by Jaimie Warren, a limbo contest hosted by drag superstar Whitney Biennial and Monica Lopez de Victoria of the TM Sisters, and much, much more. We’re also honoring the decades-long career of feminist artist Carol Cole, screening a piece by Ryan Trecartin, and dancing all night to the musical stylings of international DJ Marcelo Cunning. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in our margarita. It will be a gala gone wild.

To get yourself psyched, check out our Paddle8 auction featuring pieces from artists such as William Powhida, Carlos Rigau, and more. And check out these Spring Break GIFs: